Hyderabad CSIR research directors outline their commercial direction

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HYDERABAD: The directors of three primer research institutes in India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)—Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) , Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) said that the institutes are collaborating with private firms and converting their research projects into revenue generating commercial products.

CSIR had lined up 120 fast-track translation of research projects that can be converted to commercially viable products.

“We are working on a thermal paint which will reduce indoor room temperature by 4 degrees. This will help bring down the cost of air conditioning and also make it comfortable for people who cannot afford it, We will be launching this as a product in mid-March or April,” said S Chandrasekhar, director CSIR.

The Prime Minister is expected to launch the product. “We have identified a synthetic molecule obtained from marine sponge Eribulin, for cancer treatment used when existing drugs don’t work on the patient. The project is now completed and an industry partner will be making a generic version of it,” he added.

CCMB has two projects that are nearing completion stage. One is a cow pregnancy test kit that will help farmers make better economic decisions. “Presently, it takes more than two months to determine if the cattle is pregnant or not, now with this kit we can tell within 30 days. We are looking for companies that can do mass production,” said Rakesh K Mishra, director, CCMB.

“We are developing a cheap and easy to use detection kit for sickle cell anaemia, a genetic disease within a years time. This will help doctors in the tribal belts where the disease is more prevalent,” he added.

NGRI director says his research facility will focus on ‘knowledge development’. NGRI researchers are focusing on studying rocks along the earthquake prone Indo-Gangetic plains and are mapping them.

“Developing a full wave form tomography of seismic waves which will allow us to map different kinds of rocks accurately, this technology will be a big game changer in exploration of gas hydrates. It will solve two decades of energy needs of the country,” he added.